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Choosing & sizing

What is a VPS?

Short answer

A VPS (virtual private server) is a virtual machine with guaranteed CPU, memory and storage, running its own operating system on shared physical hardware. You get full root access and can install anything. It sits between shared hosting, where you control almost nothing, and a dedicated server, where you rent the whole machine.

The important word is "private": unlike shared hosting, the resources allocated to your instance are reserved for you, and other tenants cannot consume them. With KVM virtualisation the isolation is enforced by the processor itself, so your instance runs its own kernel and cannot see, or be seen by, its neighbours.

In practice a VPS behaves exactly like a physical Linux or Windows server that happens to be somewhere else. You connect over SSH or RDP, install software with the normal package manager, and configure the firewall yourself. Nothing about the workflow is virtualisation-specific.

  • Full root or Administrator access, including custom kernels
  • Guaranteed CPU, RAM and disk that neighbours cannot take
  • Its own public IPv4 address and, here, a routed IPv6 /64
  • Any operating system that boots — not a fixed list

See also: KVM

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